DOGS: Owner handling errors walking the Trailway

On Monday morning Chili Dog and I took our customary walk on the Memorial Trailway. With fall here and the temperatures cooler, we didn’t get to the Community Park until about 9 a.m. Even though I had on long pants and a flannel shirt, it was still a tad on the cool side so we started out briskly, just to get warm. The cooler weather seems to have prompted more walkers than I had been encountering in mid-summer, and most of the walkers on Monday also had dogs with them.

I love seeing other people walking their dogs; the health benefits for the dogs might be greater even than those for the owners. When dogs are exercised on a regular basis it greatly reduces behavior problems and, just like people, it helps maintain a healthy weight. I noticed a few common handling errors amongst the dog walkers I saw and some of them bear mentioning in the hope other owners won’t make the same mistakes.

Maybe the most common handling error I see on walks is the manner in which an owner restrains their dog, as another dog passes. First let me say, aggressiveness and agitation displayed by a dog when seeing other dogs, is upsetting and downright rude when walking a dog in a public place.

It can be corrected with a little basic obedience or, even better, avoided altogether by starting a puppy off right by lots of socialization on leash while still very young.

Twice on Monday’s walk we encountered dogs on-leash that were straining and pulling their owner along and, when they approached Chili and me, the dog became agitated. The owners were at least cognizant of that fact, but handled it in such a way that it actually rewarded the dog for the inappropriate behavior: They pulled the dog off to the side of the trail, knelt down and wrapped their arms around the dog to restrain it.

Even though the owners were saying "no, no, no," they were hugging the dog. That is not a correction or even a passive restraint, it is praise. When you touch, pet or hug a dog, it is praise. Without realizing it, the owners were actually encouraging their dog to act inappropriately and virtually insuring he will continue to do so, because he gets hugged every time.

The next handling error I witnessed on the trail was an equipment nightmare: An owner walking a large, strong dog with a pinch collar (pronged) attached to a flexi-lead. I have a problem with flexi-leads anyway. They have proven to be dangerous when used with large, strong dogs anywhere they may encounter other dogs. It’s just not possible to control a dog on a flexi-lead expanded out to eight feet or more. So just that was a bit of problem; but attached to a pinch collar it is just wrong, wrong, wrong. I have no problem with pinch collars when they are used with instruction, correctly and fitted properly; my own Schipperke, Mr. Bigfoot Bob wears a tiny little pinch collar when on-leash. Attaching a flexi-lead to a pinch collar is beyond dangerous; it is just stupid because it actually desensitizes the dog to any benefits that might be gained by using such a collar in the first place. A flexi-lead is never slack; there is always tension, and therefore a steady tug on the collar, which means the dog is being pinched a little bit all the time, teaching him to ignore altogether the pinch as a correction.

The last handling error I witnessed on the trail Monday was a guy walking his dog off-leash. Walking ahead of me was a woman with a small dog on-leash. I noticed she moved off to the side of the trail and picked her dog up. Then, as I got closer, I saw coming toward us a large dog, maybe a boxer or boxer mix that appeared to be alone. When I got within earshot I said to the woman, "Is that a stray coming up the trail?" She replied, "I don’t know but I’ve had trouble with big, loose dogs attacking my dog, so I’m not taking any chances."

The loose dog turned around and started back down the trail as I passed the lady holding her dog, and when I rounded the curve I could see a guy putting the dog back on a leash. As I passed him, I said pleasantly, "A lot of us out walking our dogs this morning." He didn’t reply and I said, "You should keep her on-leash," as I walked away. The Memorial Trailway is a great place to walk dogs, but they must be kept on-leash.

On Monday evening when I started to write this piece, I took a moment to post on Facebook the subject of today’s column. It started a conversation about loose dogs on the trail and what a problem they can be. Apparently on the upper trail where it runs along behind the dog park and horse arena, there is a very dangerous situation with loose dogs attacking horseback riders.

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